Help please Bunny fight

[Belinda-May Quirk]

Hi so i have 2 male bunnies both full, (not desexed)

I got my first male when he was between 8-11 weeks old, on 04/12/18 His name is Ash and i got my second bunny on 20/01/19 i think he was roughly 8 weeks old his name is Arya (he was meant to be a girl and was sexed wrong)

My issue is they have been in the same cage ever since and have been fine but this afternoon my boy Ash got out and when we put him back in the cage the bunnies started chasing each other kicking each other and i even saw fur being ripped out....

I don't know if it was a one time thing or weather i now need to seperate them,

I put them back together and they arent fighting but still running after each other help please

 

[Preitler]

Well, that's a quite normal thing to happen if you put 2 intact males together and they hit puberty.

I would seperate them right now and keep them apart until 6 weeks after getting them neutered, then bond them properly (whatever that exactly means, lots to read on that topic). Unlike does who have several steps of escalation when working out the pecking order bucks more likely go into full fight mode from one minute to the other. They can severly injure or even kill each other.

Apart from that, now they are driven by hormones, when you keep them together and let them scuffle it might get ingrained in their memory that the other rabbit must be fought, making bonding more difficult or even impossible even when both are neutered. 2 males is the most difficult combination anyway, if it's possible depends on the individual characters.

I keep my bucklings together until they are max. 4-5 months old, it normally works that long with mine, but 2 or 3 years ago I had a litter that matured early and the mood snapped, got home to 3 dying, halfway castrated bucklings, some feet caught in intestines...

It might be worth to think about swapping one buck for a female, even then I would neuter the male first, even if you get a spayed girl from a shelter. My intact herd buck is my free range house bunny, and he lives with a spayed girl - now, in spring, he is a PITA to her, and there is quite a lot of mopping up to do...

 

[Popsicles]

2 or 3 years ago I had a litter that matured early and the mood snapped, got home to 3 dying, halfway castrated bucklings, some feet caught in intestines..

Gosh what a sight, poor little boys!

 

[JBun]

They need to be kept completely separate for now. You cannot keep two intact males together, particularly in a small cage. You're actually fortunate nothing worse has happened.

Like preitler said, if you want to be able to keep them together, get them both neutered, wait 4-8 weeks for hormones to die down, then go through the proper bonding process. You will also need to give them a much more expanded space. You can't keep multiple adult rabbits in a small cage. Rabbits that are in too confined of a space are much more likely to fight. And just be aware, there are no guarantees that they will rebond after getting neutered, especially after having fought.

If you still want to give it a try, I would put them in completely separate parts of your home with no direct or visual contact, so they have time to forget one another and the previous history of fighting. Then once they've been neutered and it's been at least a month(though I would opt for a two month wait), I would attempt a cautious introduction(taking appropriate precautions to immediately break up a scuffle) and see how that goes.
https://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/information/bonding-bunnies/
http://www.saveabunny.org/rabbitcare/bonding-guide